Any opera with two pairs of young lovers inevitably gets compared to Così fan tutte. But in the case of Handel’s mid-career novelty Imeneo, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a better point of reference. There may be unexpected Mozartian depths to this intimate comedy of duty and desire, but there’s none of Così’s cynicism or cruelty in a piece whose games are played strictly at opera’s own expense.
With the vogue for Italian opera all but over, deposed in the 1740s by the new fashion for English oratorios, Imeneo is Handel in mischievous, end-of-term mood. This operetta (the composer didn’t dignify it with the weight of a full opera) sets up conventions only to knock them down. Da capo arias? Occasionally. Mad scene? Not really. Happy ending? Certainly not. It’s exhilarating, often meta-theatrical stuff, and director Guido Martin-Brandis and the Cambridge Handel Opera Company capture all its knowing, self-referential charm in this delightful staging.
